Nuclear-powered submarines from two of the Northern Fleet’s flotillas have conducted a days-long, complex anti-submarine exercise with torpedo-firing in the Barents Sea, the press service in Severomorsk informs.

As part of the exercise, submarines were first searching and tracking “enemy” vessels, before they initiated a “hunt” and torpedo launches. The Northern Fleet has a dozen multi-purpose nuclear-powered submarines based along the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula.

New frigate testing weapons

Russia’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate. (Russian ministry of Defence)

The Press Service of the Northern Fleet could also tell that the latest frigate, the Admiral Gorshkov, has tested its weapons in the Barents Sea. “The crew of the ship conducted air defence exercises using airborne radio-weapons and an anti-aircraft missile system”, the statement reads (in Russian).

Admiral Gorskhov was transferred north from St. Petersburg in early September, but has also sailed inter-fleet crossings from the Baltic Sea to the Barents Sea, earlier this summer. The vessel has also been to the White Sea for testing its anti-aircraft, rocket artillery and mine and torpedo weapons. The frigate is armed with Calibr supersonic cruise-missiles.

Admiral Gorskhov is now returning to Severomorsk, the main base of the Northern Fleet north of Murmansk.

Major NATO exercise

Colonel Eystein Kvarving, chief spokesperson at the Norwegian Armed Forces Headquarters media centre stands near a German military armoured vehicle after it was unloaded at Fredrikstad, Norway, September 7, 2018. Some 40,000 soldiers from more than 30 countries will take part in NATO’s “Trident Juncture” military exercise. (Gwladys Fouche/Reuters)

The naval exercises in the Barents Sea took place just weeks before NATO launches it large-scale Trident Juncture exercise in Norway. With about 45,000 soldiers, the exercise is one of the largest ever held in Norway and is aimed at testing the whole military chain, from troop training to command over large forces. NATO’s exercise takes place in southern Norway, more than 1,000 km away from Russia’s border in the north.

Russia is invited by NATO as an observer.

The Defense Ministry in Moscow on Wednesday announced the start of a tactical exercise involving long-range bombers, including Tu-22M3 based at Olenya air base on the Kola Peninsula. Other strategic bombers like the Tu-160 and Tu-95MS are also taking part in the control check exercise from their air bases in the regions of Saratov and Kaluga, further south in Russia.

Up to 10 airfields are part of the exercise, which also includes air refueling by Il-78 tankers.